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Brian Watt Business Reporter

Brian Watt covers working and entrepreneurship for KPCC. He joined the KPCC news team in 2007. Prior to that, he worked as a producer at "Marketplace," where he filed a number of his own stories and even filled in some mornings as host.

Brian's work for KPCC has won numerous awards. In 2008, Brian won “First Place for Business and Financial Coverage – Broadcast” from the Los Angeles Press Club. He’s won two Golden Mike awards from the Radio and TV News Association of Southern California, including Best Consumer/Financial Reporting in 2010. In 2011, the KPCC “Grocery Series” he contributed to won first Place from Public Radio news Directors Incorporated (PRNDI).

Brian’s KPCC career began with a year-long fellowship courtesy of the Annenberg Foundation. In 2014, Brian was one of 30 fellows selected nationally for an intensive seminar at the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism.

Across the Southland this Thanksgiving Day, businesses, charitable organizations, and a wide variety of volunteers are offering meals to people in need. Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles took on the atmosphere of a summer street festival.

Where Boeing once built spacecraft, Tesla Motors could soon build electric cars. The city council in Downey voted Wednesday to approve an incentive package that would bring a Tesla factory to town. This would mark the return of auto manufacturing to Southern California for the first time since General Motors closed its Van Nuys Plan in 1992.

California’s unemployment rate climbed to 12.5 percent in October. That’s up slightly from the month before, and the highest it’s been since World War II. But the Golden State saw some signs of job growth.

If the job market looks grim, the picture is different for air traffic controllers. Many active ones are approaching the mandatory retirement age of 56. The Federal Aviation Administration hired them to replace those who President Ronald Reagan fired for going out on strike in the early 1980s.

Southern California Muslim leaders and law enforcement officials held a news conference to express solidarity after the deadly shooting in Fort Hood, Texas. A gunman opened fire at the Army post, killing 12 people and injuring more than a dozen others. The Muslim Public Affairs Council condemned the violence and the group said it's contacted federal authorities to learn more about the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Los Angeles city and county law enforcement officials have increased patrols and officer presence around area mosques and other religious institutions. KPCC's Brian Watt was at the group's news conference and spoke with All Things Considered host Alex Cohen. (Audio: Extended details on the press conference.)

The union that represents rank-and-file LAPD officers quickly endorsed the nomination of Charlie Beck to be the next police chief. The Los Angeles Police Protective League represents the nearly 10,000 sworn members of the LAPD.

L.A. County’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has thrown AnsaldoBreda from the train. The Italian company had agreed to build a factory in Los Angeles and manufacture 100 more light rail cars for the regional transit system. But negotiations derailed over the weekend, and now the $300 million deal is off.